BRYCE Watanasoponwong

One essence of art is that it enables us to communicate to the world by expressing inner feelings through our creative visions. It is a form of communication with other humans that is indirect but deeply profound.

Artists tell their stories through art. Whatever format they use, the art should communicate human emotions so that others can interpret for themselves. Additionally, the audience must find art pleasing to the sense.

Few, if any, art forms can match the personal connection of a drawing. This basic art form allows artists to shed many of the accoutrements of other forms and make immediate markings that create a unique vision. Vision of Light is a new drawing exhibition that celebrates this intimacy and the exploratory style of Thai artists working in the form.

Visions of Light is a show presenting new work by three Thai artists who create exploratory drawing - Imhathai Suwatthanasilp, Jiratchaya Pripwai and Trinnapat Chiasitthisak. This is the first Thai art exhibition in inner Sydney, giving residents there an exciting opportunity to connect with this art for the first time.

By creating a venue to reflect on drawing, Visions of Light focuses on the act of expression and the creation of an unspoken language that arises out of art. This richly personal form of art allows the viewer to glimpse both the object and the interior of the artist.

Imhathai Suwatthanasilp

Photo: Imhathai Suwatthanasilp, courtesy of 16albermarle Project Space.

Imhathai works in dense graphite, creating patterned surfaces that mirror her finely wrought sculptures made from human hair.

In her sculptures, Imhathai uses many techniques — like weaving, crocheting and embroidery — to create both two and three-dimensional meditations on domestic life, feminine identity and family. Her drawing reflects many of the same qualities and carries the same themes.

Photo: Reflection of Natural Rhythm No.12 2019 by Imhathai Suwatthanaslip, courtesy of 16albermarle Project Space.

These mesmerising drawings spill out onto the page, flowing like water or waving grass. The rich blacks she achieves lend weight and heft to each piece, contrasting with the fineness of the lines and intricacy of the designs.

Her studio, located in Lamphun in Northern Thailand, looks out onto the natural environment, influencing her art in a profound way — encouraging a slow grace and organic forms. These natural references intermingle with her social themes and style to produce work that is both moving and serene.

Jiratchaya Pripwai

Photo: Jiratchaya Pripwai, courtesy of 16albermarle Project Space.

Jiratchaya is an award-winning artist who merges personal experience with incredibly precise, monochromatic drawings. Her work explores the conscious and subconscious mind, how they interweave and intersect like the lines of her work.

She combines line after line, working to elucidate the insights drawn from her automatic writing — a writing practice that encourages the silencing of the conscious mind to allow the subconscious to express itself in words.

By drawing through her states of consciousness, Jiratchaya weaves together fabric-like images. It is a process that acts like a therapeutic balm to the unbalanced mind, for viewers and artist alike.

Photo: Mindfulness no.1 2020 by Jiratchaya Pripwai, courtesy of 16albermarle Project Space.

The end result is quiet and reserved, yet also billowing as if caught in a gentle breeze. The delicacy of the pieces and their psychological depth sit in tension with each piece.

Trinnapat Chiasitthisak

Photo: Trinnapat Chiasitthisak, courtesy of 16albermarle Project Space.

Bangkok-based artist Trinnapat derives much of his technique from his training as an architect. His deliberate, heavy ink lines create ambiguous, dimensional images.

Trinnapat’s process is thoroughly physical. By repeatedly drawing lines that span the page, images accumulate. But the larger story is that of the body. It is a practice of unifying the mind, hands, eyes and arms, an ongoing act of bringing the entire self into unity through the creation of exploratory drawings.

Dealing with themes of space-time perception and the relationship between the mind and body, his work captures not only images but evidence of the larger practice.

Photo: 1,094 lines 2020 by Trinnapat Chiasitthisak, courtesy of 16albermarle Project Space.

Working entirely on intuition, the images that emerge are the imprint of a silence that is reached inside the artist, like the fingerprint of a meditation.

Exhibition Venue

Visions of Light is co-curated by Haisan Javanalikhikara, a Thai curator and academic from Chulalongkorn University, and John Cruthers, an Australian curator. This exhibition runs from February 6 to March 2021 at 16albermarle Project Space, a gallery and project space providing Australian audiences with contemporary art from Southeast Asia.  It is located at 16 Albemarle Street, Newtown NSW 2024, Australia.